When one of New Jersey’s political power brokers saw the news that Sen. Robert Menendez was under federal investigation — again — he called around to get a sense of how serious it was.
He was incredulous. How could Menendez (D-N.J.), having survived an indictment and two previous investigations over the past 16 years — the last just five years ago — find himself and his party in the same place again, two years before his own reelection?
"It's unimaginable that it could happen again," the power broker, who was granted anonymity to discuss the senator’s legal perils, said in an interview.
Publicly, Democrats in Menendez’s home state are rallying around their senior senator as details of the latest investigation begin to emerge: Federal investigators are focusing on a New Jersey company that was awarded exclusive rights to export halal meat to Egypt, The New York Times reported. Any connection to Menendez remains unclear.
Privately, it’s a different story.
Some New Jersey Democrats are expressing deep frustration the 68-year-old, three-term senator could once again be under an ethical cloud. Most consider Menendez an effective senator, but some are beginning to believe his legal troubles threaten to outweigh that. Others refuse to address the question altogether, insisting they’re too focused on Tuesday’s midterm election to worry about it.
Menendez, who rose from the cauldron of urban Hudson County Democratic machine politics to become chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has acknowledged the investigation but said he does not know its scope.
"Senator Menendez is always in touch with constituents and governmental, political and community leaders throughout New Jersey. His tireless advocacy on behalf of the state is supported by those relationships and has earned him a long and deep reservoir of good will," Michael Soliman, a spokesperson for Menendez, said in an emailed statement.
Soliman said Menendez intends to seek reelection in 2024.
Democrats were caught off guard by Menendez’s weakness in the 2018 primary, when Lisa McCormick, a virtually unknown candidate with no significant campaign infrastructure or money, got 38 percent of the vote despite the senator’s huge structural advantages. The results were read as a protest vote against the senator.
For now, the only thing on public display by New Jersey’s top Democrats is loyalty and fealty to Menendez, a powerful figure who has been open about his willingness to punish Democrats disloyal to him.
“To those who were digging my political grave so they could jump into my seat, I know who you are, and I won’t forget you,” Menendez said outside of the federal courthouse in Newark in 2017, after he beat corruption charges.
Menendez’s influence in local politics is so strong that his son, Robert J. Menendez, is poised to take over the U.S. House seat his father occupied before being elevated to the Senate. The younger Menendez easily won the Democratic nomination to replace the retiring Rep. Albio Sires and is virtually assured of winning his election next week in the solidly Democratic district of North Jersey, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. The district includes some of the most urban areas of New Jersey, including parts of Newark, Jersey City and Elizabeth.
“I support him 100 percent,” Hudson County Democratic Chair Anthony Vainieri Jr. said in a phone interview when asked about the latest investigation of the senator. “No comment on this story. I'm not going to get involved in this, OK?”
During a press conference commemorating the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Sandy’s devastating landfall in New Jersey — an event that took place just days after Menendez’s latest scandal began to publicly emerge — Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) described Menendez as “my colleague, my friend, my brother in the Senate [and] my rock.”
“Bob Menendez was truly one of New Jersey’s great heroes at that time of the storm 10 years ago,” he said.
At the same press conference, Gov. Phil Murphy, a fellow Democrat, thanked Menendez for “gathering the billions of dollars we needed to get back on our feet.”
“No one comes close,” he said.
During a radio interview Monday evening, Murphy described Menendez as an "incredibly valuable and important partner," without commenting directly on the investigation.
But at least one activist on the party’s left flank is voicing criticism publicly.
Sue Altman, executive director of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, said the Menendez news threatens to dampen Democratic enthusiasm and volunteer recruitment for canvassing.
“It’s a window into the ugliness of New Jersey politics, Hudson County politics. Menendez is a product of these things,” Altman said in an interview. “Overall, it’s a brand problem for the Democrats. Stories like this confirm peoples’ priors that Democrats are corrupt. We need to take steps in New Jersey to make sure that is no longer the case.”
Menendez won his first election to a full term in 2006 despite a federal probe by then-New Jersey U.S. Attorney Chris Christie into a nonprofit that rented space from him while he helped it secure grants. No charges were ever filed and Menendez, who denied any wrongdoing, received a letter from federal officials in 2011 saying the investigation had been closed.
In 2015, after Menendez was indicted on federal bribery charges for allegedly doing political favors for a friend and political donor, Booker was one of the first New Jersey Democrats to publicly declare support for him.
"I won't waver in my commitment to stand alongside my senior senator to serve our great state,” Booker said at the time. He was followed by almost every other prominent New Jersey Democrat.
Menendez beat those charges in 2017 after a lengthy trial, thanks to a hung jury in which 10 of 12 jurors wanted to find him not guilty on most charges.
During a courthouse speech after his trial’s deadlock, Menendez decried prosecutors who “could not understand or, even worse, accept that the Latino kid from Union City and Hudson County could grow up to be a United State senator and be honest.”
His reelection in 2018 coincided with a Democratic wave that helped propel him to a comfortable 11-point victory over Republican Bob Hugin, who's now chair of the state Republican Party and who spent tens of millions of dollars against him.
A lot has changed since then, and with it, Democrats’ political calculations.
Most importantly, Murphy is governor until January 2026. Had Menendez resigned or been forced to leave office during the previous scandal, Christie, a Republican who was then governor, would have appointed an interim replacement — presumably a member of the GOP. That prospect alone gave Democrats a huge incentive to stick with Menendez.
Since then, New Jersey Democrats have developed a deeper bench of ambitious elected officials, some of whom are already positioning themselves to run for governor in 2025 since Murphy is term-limited.
New Jersey’s Democratic politics are often determined by a few power brokers forging an agreement ahead of the primary, and the state’s regional political bosses would likely salivate at the potential deals to be cut on who would get the party’s nod for senator and who would get support for governor should Menendez step aside.
So far, much of the speculation among insiders as potential Menendez replacements has focused on Reps. Josh Gottheimer, Mikie Sherrill and Donald Norcross and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop. There’s even been speculation, perhaps far-fetched, that Murphy could appoint himself to the seat.
“I wouldn’t worry about it. Not at this point. It’s way too early for anybody to try to jump in the guy’s grave,” former state Senate President Steve Sweeney said in an interview.
“He's been an amazing senator and does a really good job as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,” said Somerset County Democratic Chair Peg Schaffer, who leads the party in a once-solidly Republican suburban county that shifted Democratic in the Trump era.. “It seems like part of what happens when you serve in office in this state, especially when you come out of Hudson County, you’re going to be subject to investigations over and over again.”
She added: “Just knowing the man, I don't think there's any credibility to it.”
